Serra da Estrela

Serra da Estrela is the roof of mainland Portugal, a granite massif rising to Torre at 1,993 metres, where a road, a short ski lift and a cluster of shops sit on the summit. The mountain is more interesting below that. The Zezere carved a textbook glacial valley on the eastern side, broad and U-shaped above Manteigas, with the birch grove of Covao d'Ametade at its head. Boulder fields, small glacial lakes and stone shepherds' huts fill the plateau, and the Poco do Inferno waterfall drops into a wooded ravine nearby. The range gives its name to a sheep's milk cheese soft enough to eat with a spoon, and to the mountain dog breed that guarded the flocks.

History

Archaeology shows small Early Neolithic communities here in the fifth millennium BC, living by hunting, gathering acorns and moving their sheep and goats between summer pastures on the heights and lower winter ground. A legend of a lake near the summit where the wrecks of ships floated to the surface even found its way into Moby-Dick (Wikipedia, Serra da Estrela).

The landscape

• The Zezere glacial valley - a broad U-shaped trench above Manteigas.
• Torre - the summit plateau, reachable by road, holding snow into spring.
• Covao d'Ametade - birch trees and a stream under the valley headwall.
• Poco do Inferno - a waterfall in a wooded ravine on the Manteigas side.

When to go

May to October gives walking weather and open roads, with wildflowers peaking in early summer. Snow falls between December and March, but it is unreliable, and the summit road can close or jam with day trippers on the first good weekend. Autumn brings clear air and the cheese season. Fog can settle on the plateau at any time of year.

Practical notes

Torre is a car park with a beginner ski slope and souvenir stalls, and on snowy Sundays the access road becomes a queue with cars abandoned on the verges. Weather changes fast and the plateau offers no shelter at all. Villages below are handsome but services thin out early in the evening, and winter road conditions catch out summer tyres.

Nearby

Manteigas, the walled village of Linhares and the upper Mondego valley.

Key facts